Walnut Finish

[Rolf]

Hi all. As we here in my part of the world enter a colder season, inside activitys become more atractive.

Many of you know I bought a pair of 4343B's from Guido. These where originally in the Studio Gray finish, later painted black. Now I have finaly managed to order real American walnut venieer? for the boxes, and got my hands on solid American walnut wood for the edges. (And yes...I got the dark blue cloth for the grills. Thank you Guido ).

The venieer is about 1mm thick and there is a kind of fabric on the back, so it should be much easyer to apply to the boxes.

What I need to know is what type of glue to use on the venieer. I know I can use "contact glue"?, the one you put on both sides, wait until dry, and put on.

BUT: this gives me only ONE shot! Is there another glue to recommend for this? I am thinking about something you put on, and maybe after drying use a iron to make it fit.

Anybody have experience with this?

For the outer frames I will get a local shop to make them right.

I will put pictures as the project moving on.

Regards from

Rolf in Norway

[John W]

I have had the best luck with water-based contact cement. You do need to be careful putting the veneer on initially, cause once it makes contact it sticks. You can't move it.
Cut the veneer about 1/2 cm larger on each side. What I have used lately for positioning the veneer on the cabinet is parchment paper, like used in cookie baking. This has some non-stick properties that prevents it from sticking to the glue and lets you verify all edges are covered before the glue contacts.

I have tried heat-activated glues in the past and didn't like them. What I found was that as soon as the iron was applied, the veneer would shrink. Over time the veneer would expand again sometimes lifting and other times causing bubbles.

[Rolf]

I have had the best luck with water-based contact cement. You do need to be careful putting the veneer on initially, cause once it makes contact it sticks. You can't move it.

I have tried heat-activated glues in the past and didn't like them. What I found was that as soon as the iron was applied, the veneer would shrink. Over time the veneer would expand again sometimes lifting and other times causing bubbles.

Hi John. Yes I have used the contact sement several times doing different work, mostly on much smaller areas, but in this case I would not like to use it.

If you say the glue used with iron is going to decrease the finish after time I will not use it.

Maybe it is the best to use the old fashen way with contact sement.

Thanks for the advice.

Anybody else with experience??

rolf

[yggdrasil]

Hi Rolf


I stumbled over an old furniture carpenter a while ago. He could tell me that he used standard wood glue. Brushed out the glue. Then he used a board a little bit smaller than the veneer to put pressure on the veneer. To distribute the pressure he put a 2x4" or 2x6" in the center of the board and worked the way out applying more 2x4"'s. On the area outside the board he used a veneering hammer.

I have not tried this technique yet, so I will have to come back later with pictures and a more detailed how-to.

On another project I also used standard wood glue, brushed it out on both the veneer and the cabinet. After the glue had dried I used an iron to melt the cabinet and veneer to each other. http://audioheritage.org/vbulletin/s...ead.php?t=4950

Please call if you feel like it.